Feminism and the Institution:
How the Work of Rosemarie Trockel and Elaine Reichek Create Institutional Critique
through Feminist Art
Art
and the United States military, as institutions, have many similarities.
Through the study of institutional critique in the arts I have found deeper
meaning in my own artistic works.
The pervasiveness of masculinity in society can be seen through the
exploration of feminist art in the art institution. A portion of my current
flag box project is an institutional critique that discusses gender silencing
through an institution, the military, by using feminine craft that requires
silence and concentration. This new avenue in my work has lead to the research
of artists working with craft to convey meaning, discussing institutional
critique, and feminist ideas. I have found the artists Elaine Reichek and
Rosemarie Trockel approach institutional critique in an interesting and
influential way that helps me understand and explore my own work.
Elaine
Reichek is a conceptual artist who was raised in a Jewish middle class family
in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Brooklyn College, where she studied
painting under Ad Reinhardt and obtained her Bachelor of Arts, and Yale University
where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts. Reichek moved into sewing as her
primary form of art in 1972 as a means of exploring different materials in
abstract painting[1] (Reichek). It was not until the 1980s that Reichek began to discuss
institutional critique and cultural subversion of various ethnic groups through
art and its institutions.
Reichek
created When This You See… from
1994-1999 alongside a series of Native American collage critiques (see fig. 1).
The installation is made up of thirty-one embroidered samplers that work
together to unravel an alternate female gendered art history, and discuss the
nagging presence of feminine craft language in famous quotes, historical
literature, and popular modern works of art.[2] The thirty-one pieces are displayed as works of art in a museum “cube”
painted, as the artist describes, a “library green” (Reichek) with trim and
carpeting set apart from the rest of the exhibition.
Fig.
1 When This You See…, 1999. The
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The installation as a whole accentuates the art
institutional cube by segregating the installation and emphasizing the space;
and also conjures domesticity with the dull green walls, and dampening the
sound with neutral carpet.
Reichek sees art as a social institution,
and her embroidery samplers invoke the opposite by creating a silent artistic
language laced with anger, humor, and gender struggles through imagery,
linguistics, and material.[3] Reichek believes, “Art homogenizes what’s different…art isn’t innocent;
you have to understand its’ place in the culture, the way it helps us digest
and accommodate ourselves to what the culture is doing (Lichtenstein).” My flag
box project influenced by Reichek’s embroidery samplers, has similarities with
respect to use of semiotics to critique the institution, and also the
utilization of feminine craft as a voice. The silent, methodical, isolated
hours involved in each stitch, weave, knot, and bead echo the silencing of
women seen in military, art institutions, and in society.
Reichek’s
fourteenth sampler in the installation, Sampler (Starting Over), is a strong example of the silent influence of women on dominant male
figures and the art institution (see fig. 2). The sampler reads from left to
right, starting with modern art and a quote by Ad Reinhardt and ending with a
quote from the Odyssey and a Greek vase design[4].
Fig.
2 Sampler (Starting Over), 1996. The
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Reichek is demonstrating the repetitive nature of
process, the link of gridded painting to weaving and feminine craft, and it’s
direct creation by women, specifically Penelope from The Odyssey. She suggests this female creator is cherished and embodied
unknowingly by prominent male artist Ad Reinhardt (Frankel and Reichek). Reichek
utilizes a limited color palette of black and red in the repetitive Greek key
border, quotes, and Greek vase design to add weight to the minute color changes
in the three black squares at the left, that are direct embroidered replicas of
Reinhardt’s black squares painting.
Like Reichek, I utilize a limited
color palette to accentuate meaning. Through the use of yellow, red, and blue
in sterile white boxes my work demonstrates not only the basis of Western
painting palettes, but also the bold colors used by the military to create
restraints through rules, instill honor in those serving, and fear and awe in
outsiders. The Greek vase design in Reichek’s sampler begins with Penelope
creating the tapestry and tells the story of removing the stitches at night to
create the end result: a circular pile of fabric to be rewoven. Reichek
deliberately ended the Greek design with a circular pattern to redirect the
viewer to the beginning of the piece, to reemphasize Reinhardt’s quote about
creation and eternal repetition, and to also mock the art institution that
honored the male abstract expressionist artists who were directly influenced by
the first process artist; a female, since the art institution did not see as
females deserving of attention (Reichek).
Rosemarie
Trockel’s work also approaches institutional critique through feminist art and
manipulation of language and images[5]. Marcus Steinweg notes: To be clear means to answer the opening up to
the unknown with language, and language is not primarily communication. The
unknown can project into language as a scream or as silence (qtd. in Friedemann, 26).
Trockel
is a contemporary artist born in Schwerte, Germany. She studied painting under
Werner Schriefers at the Werkkunstschule in Cologne, but Trockel has never
worked solely in painting. Her first solo show was an exhibition of sculpture,
and by the 1980s she was known for her machine-knitted wool paintings. During
this time she also worked with artists like Martin Kippenberger who were well
aware of the masculine nature of the art institution (Graw). Currently,
Trockel’s work carries a dark humor charged with feminist perspective, and she
works with a wide range of material including wool, ceramic, bronze, and found
objects (Cooke, 45).
In
2010 Trockel created the sculptural piece, Spiral
Betty (see fig. 3). The sculpture is a 5 foot
wall-mounted elegant structure of black and white, potentially modeled after
Robert Smithson’s 1970, Spiral Jetty (see fig. 3), and mocking of Minimalist artist Dan Flavin.[6] It is mounted on a flat black wall in a large room. Instead of being a
centerpiece on a pedestal, Spiral Betty provides the viewer with an initial viewpoint of an unassuming,
unobtrusive, passive sculpture. At the top of the piece are two feminine white
spirals that conjoin into a narrow clear tube with black wires that expand into
a long white fluorescent light, and finally conclude with a thick white cord to
the floor.
Fig. 3 Spiral Jetty, 1970 Great Salt Lake,
Utah. Spiral Betty, 2010. Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain.
Her
use of strictly black and white creates associations with the sterility of an
institution, male anatomy, and possibly the spirals as symbols of ovaries
hierarchically superior to the male anatomy of the fluorescent light. Trockel’s
use of found objects to make a “bad” copy of an institutionally prized work of
art is a darkly humorous remark and feminist critique on the social and art
institution norms (Cooke, 23).
Trockel’s influence shows in my work with a crude sterile version of an
iconic symbol for military memorial, the flag box. My flag box construct
signifies honoring and memorializing those who have served, but at the same
time it constrains the contents; and the rebar representing the three Navy core
values, honor, courage, and commitment, prevents the viewer from experiencing
the memorial within, which is a comment on the loss of the individual.
Trockel’s Spiral Betty, in my
opinion, is a summation piece of her past and
present works that discusses multiple issues, including feminism and
institutional critique, and can be enjoyed on many levels, but at the same time
may create puzzled reactions.[7]
I
am drawn to the works of Elaine Reichek and Rosemarie Trockel for their complex
conversations about feminism, art as an institution, and their whimsical
manipulation of semiotics. Like Elaine Reichek’s When This
You See… my flag boxes explore the deeper meaning
behind the use of feminine craft, and the discussions I can create through the
language of weaving, embroidery, beadwork, quilting, crochet, and scrap
booking. The handmade objects become an important part of the process, and the
flags created through these feminine crafts project a stoic silence that is
enriched by the extensive histories behind these utilitarian feminine art
forms. They allow me to discuss the femininity that may be forgotten or
disrupted when subjected to the masculine regulations enforced by military
institutions. Rosemarie Trockel’s Spiral Betty, although working with similar themes as Elaine Reichek, influences my
work through her whimsical use of semiotics to debunk the rules of the art
institution. I create military institutional critique through the distortion
and use of well-known symbols of honor, war, and memorial. By combining my
hand-made “flags” with constraining precise boxes and military medals and
ribbons, I develop a telling narrative enveloping identity and gender politics,
feminist struggle, and institutional critique.
Works Cited
Cooke,
Lynne ed. A Cosmos. New York:
Monacelli Press, 2012. Print.
Frankel,
David, and Elaine Reichek. When This You
See…Elaine Reichek. New York: George Braziller
Inc., 2000. Print.
Friedemann,
Malsch, et al. Rosemarie Trockel.
Berlin: Rosemarie Trockel,
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn,
Monchehaus Museum, 2011. Print.
Graw,
Isabelle. “Rosemarie Trockel.” ArtForum.
ArtForum, March 2003. 24 Oct. 2013. Web.
Lichtenstein,
Therese. “Elaine Reichek.” Journal of
Contemporary Art. 24 Oct. 2013. Web.
Reichek,
Elaine. Elaine Reichek. n. p. n. d.
Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
[1] The
samplers she is known for today did not begin until much later, and were first
showcased in her installation When This
You See.. in 1994. See Elaine Reichek’s website for in-depth descriptions
of her progression.
[2] See
the essay by David Frankel in When This
you See… by Elaine Reichek for interesting correlations between Reichek’s
work and work of Jasper Johns, Jackson Polluck, and Andy Warhol.
[3] In
her interview in The Journal of
Contemporary Art Reichek describes the art of embroidery as a solitary
practice requiring great focus and concentration leaving the artisan to their
own thoughts and fantasies.
[4] When This You See… by Elaine Reichek has a
beautiful 4 page panel of Sampler
(Starting Over) where both quotes may be readily viewed.
[5] Both
Elaine Reichek and Rosemarie Trockel utilize semiotics, the study of signs and
symbols and their use or interpretation, to discuss complex issues through
their work.
[6] Dan
Flavin was a Minimalist artist who worked with neon lights. He was interested
in creating simple forms, industrial material, and symbolic meaning.
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